The Canadian Royal Mounted National Police Force on Friday unwittingly added cartoon animated ears and whiskers to what otherwise would have been a solemn livestream press conference regarding a double homicide, as reported by The Daily Beast.
Sgt Janelle Shoihet filmed the event and the British Columbia's Police Force clarified on Twitter that the addition of the face filter was an accident.
The conference was addressing the case of the murder of a young couple on holiday in Canada; an American women and her Australian partner.
The department then re-uploaded an updated version of the recorded conference without the animated face filters.
Similar technology has also been used in a viral application 'FaceApp' which has seen hoards of people digitally altering their faces to age themselves.
The police have blamed an "automatic setting" of the cat filter feature for the mishap.